Hi Tex,
The calcium was high when the vitamin D deficiency was first detected (vitamin D of 18) in November. That's why this is really weird! But when they called me then they said that the vitamin D was low and everything else was fine. There are a few other "abnormal" results but maybe they didn't take them into consideration because they were borderline?
I will let you know what the other abnormal ones were once I am back at home and can look them up.
Love, Patricia
Hierarchies in the immune system?
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Patricia,
If anything, Entocort should cause your serum calcium levels to go down, because it interferes with the absorption of calcium from the intestines into the bloodstream. And if your vitamin D was deficient, then excess vitamin D is certainly not the problem.
Because of that, your doctor definitely needs to order a PTH test for you. As you say, it certainly won't hurt anything to do the test, and hopefully it will rule out a parathyroid issue.
You're very welcome.
Love,
Tex
If anything, Entocort should cause your serum calcium levels to go down, because it interferes with the absorption of calcium from the intestines into the bloodstream. And if your vitamin D was deficient, then excess vitamin D is certainly not the problem.
Because of that, your doctor definitely needs to order a PTH test for you. As you say, it certainly won't hurt anything to do the test, and hopefully it will rule out a parathyroid issue.
You're very welcome.
Love,
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Tex,
Thanks for your input.
The other "abnormal" test results aside from calcium and vitamin D were:
low SGOT, high percentage of SEG, low percentage of lymph (however, the absolute numbers for SEG and lymph were normal).
All the other tests (sedimentation rate, vitamin B12, CBC, automated diff, CPK, comprehensive metabolic, rheumatoid factor, ANA screening, Lyme disease) were normal.
The nurse has not called me back yet about ordering the PTH.
I am supposed to go in for a follow-up with the PCP at the beginning of March. But maybe I'll schedule something sooner. I thought that all my symptoms were due to MC (including the itching on my body, rash on my face, joint and bone aches, fatigue, not feeling like myself, and recently, sometimes a burning feeling with urination). But maybe that's not the case. Apparently hyperparathyroidism can also cause itching and bone aches. I never even thought of that until I saw yesterday that my calcium was high and the vitamin D low and that popped up. I don't want to come across as a super anxious patient, coming up with all kinds of diseases that I could be affected by. At the same time, I just really don't feel like my old self, and haven't in a year. And it is hard to cope with a disease when new symptoms keep popping up!
As for the rash on the right side of my face (always worse when I first get up in the morning): I saw my dermatologist for my yearly exam the other week. He had a look at the rash under some special lamp and said that he was pretty convinced it looked like it was a cortisone rash. He said he wouldn't be surprised if it faded once the Budesonide was out of my system. I took the last Budesonide capsule 6 days ago. I'll be curious to see if the rash disappears.
On the GI side I seem to improve. I have been on the lamb, sweet potatoes (with olive oil, salt, pepper), banana diet for a month and have not had diarrhea!! Woohoo!!! Huge success!!! Thanks to all of you guys!
I barely lost weight since then, maybe one or two more pounds. But I really think that my gut is absorbing again what I eat (instead of having a varied diet rush through me at high speed).
I had a small size of regular potatoes on three days last week. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of starting on the vitamin D3 sample from Freeda two days earlier. All of a sudden, I had again more itching on my body, and now I don't know what caused it.
So I removed both and will try again with just potatoes. But the itching has not gone away yet.
Thanks for listening!
Love, Patricia
Thanks for your input.
The other "abnormal" test results aside from calcium and vitamin D were:
low SGOT, high percentage of SEG, low percentage of lymph (however, the absolute numbers for SEG and lymph were normal).
All the other tests (sedimentation rate, vitamin B12, CBC, automated diff, CPK, comprehensive metabolic, rheumatoid factor, ANA screening, Lyme disease) were normal.
The nurse has not called me back yet about ordering the PTH.
I am supposed to go in for a follow-up with the PCP at the beginning of March. But maybe I'll schedule something sooner. I thought that all my symptoms were due to MC (including the itching on my body, rash on my face, joint and bone aches, fatigue, not feeling like myself, and recently, sometimes a burning feeling with urination). But maybe that's not the case. Apparently hyperparathyroidism can also cause itching and bone aches. I never even thought of that until I saw yesterday that my calcium was high and the vitamin D low and that popped up. I don't want to come across as a super anxious patient, coming up with all kinds of diseases that I could be affected by. At the same time, I just really don't feel like my old self, and haven't in a year. And it is hard to cope with a disease when new symptoms keep popping up!
As for the rash on the right side of my face (always worse when I first get up in the morning): I saw my dermatologist for my yearly exam the other week. He had a look at the rash under some special lamp and said that he was pretty convinced it looked like it was a cortisone rash. He said he wouldn't be surprised if it faded once the Budesonide was out of my system. I took the last Budesonide capsule 6 days ago. I'll be curious to see if the rash disappears.
On the GI side I seem to improve. I have been on the lamb, sweet potatoes (with olive oil, salt, pepper), banana diet for a month and have not had diarrhea!! Woohoo!!! Huge success!!! Thanks to all of you guys!
I barely lost weight since then, maybe one or two more pounds. But I really think that my gut is absorbing again what I eat (instead of having a varied diet rush through me at high speed).I had a small size of regular potatoes on three days last week. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of starting on the vitamin D3 sample from Freeda two days earlier. All of a sudden, I had again more itching on my body, and now I don't know what caused it.
So I removed both and will try again with just potatoes. But the itching has not gone away yet.
Thanks for listening!
Love, Patricia
Patricia,
The low SGOT result may indicate a vitamin B-6 deficiency, but I wouldn't get too excited about a single test result. A low SGOT result is a minor issue. A high SGOT result can be serious, so yours is off in the least risky direction.
My doctor had the same attitude about a PTH test. Apparently they see parathyroid problems so seldom that they consider them so rare that they don't expect to see any cases. And if you had any heart damage from hypercalcemia, your SGOT should be elevated, not low, so that's probably another reason why your doctor is not too excited about this. Still, it's a simple blood test, and with issues such as hyperparathyroidism, it's best to err on the side of caution, IMO.
Tex
The low SGOT result may indicate a vitamin B-6 deficiency, but I wouldn't get too excited about a single test result. A low SGOT result is a minor issue. A high SGOT result can be serious, so yours is off in the least risky direction.
My doctor had the same attitude about a PTH test. Apparently they see parathyroid problems so seldom that they consider them so rare that they don't expect to see any cases. And if you had any heart damage from hypercalcemia, your SGOT should be elevated, not low, so that's probably another reason why your doctor is not too excited about this. Still, it's a simple blood test, and with issues such as hyperparathyroidism, it's best to err on the side of caution, IMO.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Patricia,Patricia wrote:Tex,
I had again more itching on my body, and now I don't know what caused it.
So I removed both and will try again with just potatoes. But the itching has not gone away yet.
Thanks for listening!
Love, Patricia
You mention itching. Do you suspect that the itching comes from a food intolerance?
I know that mysterious itching that has no obvious reason, sometimes can be a sign of diabetes or thyroid problems.
So, if the itching does not go away as you proceed with your new diet, you probably should ask for tests related to the two. (If you're on Entocort, you should wait until you are off medication).
Lilja
Collagenous Colitis diagnosis in 2010
Psoriasis in 1973, symptom free in 2014
GF, CF and SF free since April, 2013
Psoriasis in 1973, symptom free in 2014
GF, CF and SF free since April, 2013
Regarding the rash: Yes, that is a less common side effect of budesonide. But I get the impression that the itching is not necessarily associated with the rash. Am I wrong? I'm beginning to wonder if you might have some sort of problem metabolizing vitamin D. Itching, and an elevated calcium level are symptoms of serious overdosing of vitamin D. And yet paradoxically, your vitamin D level is low.
Maybe your vitamin D level should be retested. And make sure that they order the 25(OH)D test, not the test for the active form, 1,25(OH)2D.
Or you can order a test kit yourself from:
https://vitamindcouncil.zrtlab.com/
Love,
Tex
Unless that particular lot of vitamin D contains something like 500,000 IU of vitamin D, you shouldn't have such a powerful overdose response after only 2 consecutive doses. Something is definitely wrong.Patricia wrote:Unfortunately, I made the mistake of starting on the vitamin D3 sample from Freeda two days earlier. All of a sudden, I had again more itching on my body, and now I don't know what caused it.
Maybe your vitamin D level should be retested. And make sure that they order the 25(OH)D test, not the test for the active form, 1,25(OH)2D.
Or you can order a test kit yourself from:
https://vitamindcouncil.zrtlab.com/
Love,
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Thanks, Brandy!
Good to know about the SGOT, Tex!
Lilja:
It is one of the reasons I switched from chicken (first week) to lamb (past month). But the itching/rash has not changed significantly.
Glucose was normal when checked in November. TSH was last checked in summer 2013 and normal at that time.
I looked at older reports and my calcium level went from 9.2 in 2012 to 9.8 in 2013 to 10.3 in 2014.
On one of the German websites I read that a high blood calcium can result in itching (due to calcium deposits in the skin).
By the way, while reading up on high calcium and what tests exactly I should ask for, I found this really interesting website. It has excellent graphs on calcium, PTH, and vitamin D levels, how calcium and PTH levels differ for patients with intestinal absorption problems such as celiac sprue (just scroll down for that one):
http://parathyroid.com/hyperparathyroid ... gnosis.htm
The website advises against taking vitamin D if the calcium level is elevated:
http://parathyroid.com/low-vitamin-d.htm
The nurse called back and said that the PTH test was ordered. Based on what I was just reading on that website above, I asked her that they test the calcium and the ionized calcium at the same time. The nurse said she would ask my PCP on Monday (I hope she is not getting miffed).
Love, Patricia
Good to know about the SGOT, Tex!
Lilja:
That's what I thought initially. I thought the itching and the rash came from food, some kind of allergic reaction.Do you suspect that the itching comes from a food intolerance?
It is one of the reasons I switched from chicken (first week) to lamb (past month). But the itching/rash has not changed significantly.
Glucose was normal when checked in November. TSH was last checked in summer 2013 and normal at that time.
I looked at older reports and my calcium level went from 9.2 in 2012 to 9.8 in 2013 to 10.3 in 2014.
On one of the German websites I read that a high blood calcium can result in itching (due to calcium deposits in the skin).
By the way, while reading up on high calcium and what tests exactly I should ask for, I found this really interesting website. It has excellent graphs on calcium, PTH, and vitamin D levels, how calcium and PTH levels differ for patients with intestinal absorption problems such as celiac sprue (just scroll down for that one):
http://parathyroid.com/hyperparathyroid ... gnosis.htm
The website advises against taking vitamin D if the calcium level is elevated:
http://parathyroid.com/low-vitamin-d.htm
The nurse called back and said that the PTH test was ordered. Based on what I was just reading on that website above, I asked her that they test the calcium and the ionized calcium at the same time. The nurse said she would ask my PCP on Monday (I hope she is not getting miffed).
Love, Patricia
Patricia,
Lilja's post brings to mind another possibility for itching problems. Virtually any liver disease can cause what is known as cholestatic pruritus. The most commonly associated issues are diseases such as primary biliary cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis. However, if you had a liver disease, your lever enzymes should be elevated, so this problem seems very unlikely, based on your test results. Presumably your doctor has considered this, and ruled them out.
Love,
Tex
Lilja's post brings to mind another possibility for itching problems. Virtually any liver disease can cause what is known as cholestatic pruritus. The most commonly associated issues are diseases such as primary biliary cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis. However, if you had a liver disease, your lever enzymes should be elevated, so this problem seems very unlikely, based on your test results. Presumably your doctor has considered this, and ruled them out.
Love,
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
I never get sick, although I am prone to GI infections. I attribute it to my HLA DQ2 genes, the autoimmunity/hyperactive immunity genes. My son has it too and he never gets sick either, despite low Vit D levels. We don't have any environmental or IgE allergies either.
1987 Mononucleosis (EBV)
2004 Hypomyopathic Dermatomyositis
2009 Lymphocytic Colitis
2010 GF/DF/SF Diet
2014 Low Dose Naltrexone
2004 Hypomyopathic Dermatomyositis
2009 Lymphocytic Colitis
2010 GF/DF/SF Diet
2014 Low Dose Naltrexone
I had just learned about vitamin D helping prevent the flu from Dr Davis's and Dr. Cannell's Vitamin D Council sights. The two noticed they and their patients didn't develop the winter flu bug as frequently once vitamin D levels were raised. There has been a few studies on the connection. Figured this is the likely reason why I stopped catching a winter flu bug. Before that I was always catching the flu bug going around! It's been nice.
"Randomized trial of vitamin D supplementation to prevent seasonal influenza A in schoolchildren."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20219962
&
"The seasonality of pandemic and non-pandemic influenzas: the roles of solar radiation and vitamin D."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21036090
"Randomized trial of vitamin D supplementation to prevent seasonal influenza A in schoolchildren."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20219962
&
"The seasonality of pandemic and non-pandemic influenzas: the roles of solar radiation and vitamin D."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21036090
-
Gabes-Apg
- Emperor Penguin
- Posts: 8332
- Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2009 3:12 pm
- Location: Hunter Valley NSW Australia
Patricia
researching some Methylation stuff and came across this article
it mentions calcium imbalance - ignore that it is based on autism, the role of inflammation and interrupted methylation cycle applies to multiple health issues...
http://www.dramyyasko.com/wp-content/up ... or.pdfhigh calcium.....
researching some Methylation stuff and came across this article
it mentions calcium imbalance - ignore that it is based on autism, the role of inflammation and interrupted methylation cycle applies to multiple health issues...
http://www.dramyyasko.com/wp-content/up ... or.pdfhigh calcium.....
Gabes Ryan
"Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned"
Dalai Lama
"Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned"
Dalai Lama
Eating Out
Hi- have a terrible time dining out. This seems to be the social choice when I am in Florida. The waiters don't know what is in the food. People don't understand how serious this is for me. Found a site for gluten free available restaurants. You need to ask for the gluten free menu. But I can't eat dairy, milk, soy, eggs or corn for sure. My husband claims I am anti-social. Tired of explaining to friends. Am on entocort til june. Any advice? Sandy (2 previous cancers and diagnosed july of 2014)
Trying to heal.